Tweet

For our fans, we haven't been posting much because... well, we've been awfully busy. We are thrilled with our first 9 months in business. We established a new company, just as the economy was tanking and gas and oil prices were going sky-high. Yet we've had plenty of leads, and plenty of work to keep us very busy.

Watch this blog over the next 3 months. We anticipate launching 4 large, substantial sites by the end of the year, all with various custom-coded components and modules, and of course all with custom templates.  We also have several smaller sites on the way.

Why are we so busy in this frightening economy?

We are in Keene, New Hampshire, not exactly a metropolis.  We've got a population of about 30,000 in the area, plus another 30,000 in the Brattleboro area about 25 miles west of here.

We're a small, three person company that launched in January 2008. It's not like we've been around forever and are working on client recommendations 5 times removed.

We believe we're doing well because we share several core values:

• Communication is the grease that makes a project go smoothly. Tell people what's happening, even if you have nothing to tell.  Return phone calls and emails in a business day when possible, and certainly no more than two business days. Again, even if you have nothing to say to the client other than "got your message and I'll get back to you", it's reassuring to the client to know that you got the message.
• Don't always listen TO the client... listen THROUGH the client. Your client has some problem they're trying to solve with technology. They are not technology experts -- that's why they called you to solve the problem for them.  Figure out what the problem is they're trying to solve, and listen to their suggested solution. Then, if possible, improve on it. They may be on the right track, and with a few tweaks, you have the right answer. Or they may be totally off with their ideas.
• We won't take on projects in which strategic goals are not clearly defined. Recently, we met with a potential client who wanted a whole social networking site for their business. However, WHY people would go to their site to play games, participate in discussion boards, etc, was very unclear. Furthermore, it wasn't clear if the demographic of this business matched a social networking solution, i.e. younger audiences, 18-35.  We suggested some more research and thinking before spending a bundle of money on something that might not even work. We think our reputation is that important, because if we did build an ill-conceived project that doesn't work out for the client, who gets the blame?...  frequently the web developer, frequently because of a "badly designed interface" or it's "too hard to use". It may be that, but if the web application doesn't solve the strategic problem, you're compounding issues.
• Follow up, follow up, follow up.  It really goes with communications. But if you give your client homework, follow up to make sure they understand what they need to do, and when they need to complete it.  If you're working on something, follow up with the client to make sure they know about it.
• Make an excellent, easy-to-use product.  We pride ourselves on making our sites simple to use and easy to maintain. Of course, Joomla and Wysiwyg Pro are wonderful for this to start with.  But if we can put a few tweaks into a custom coded widget that makes life easier for the client, we'll take the extra time to do that.